Fall Festivities

The first "fall" activity that I did was go to the Arkansas State Fair!  I really didn't want to go, but my mom wanted to see Kansas.  Obviously calorie counting was thrown out the window on fair day.  First up was dinner- loaded cheese fries.  Delicious.  Look at all the grease... ha!

Then for dinner- a Red Velvet Funnel Cake.  And a hot chocolate- because it was freaking cold!

 

I was dissapointed in the funnel cake- it reminded me of a bandaid.  I think the idea of a funnel cake was much better than the real thing.  The cream cheese icing on it was pretty good.

 

Here's a really bad picture of Kansas.

 

 

Then, I went to a Pumpkin Patch about 45 minutes away.  It was really awesome (and I got a great deal on DealChicken), except for the fifty million bees that were hanging around the food area.  Aparently bees really like snow cones.  Here I am in the pumpkin patch.

 

 

Two of the pumpkins we got:

 

 

The pumpkin that my sister designed (and I carved):

 

 

The pumpkin I carved for my brother:

 

 

There was a small crisis with this pumpkin, which was for the party at his school.  I accidentally busted out the bottom of the "H" when I was carving.  I finally got some toothpicks in there so that I could get everything back in place, but I was freaking out for a few minutes. 

 

My Sunday School class had a Halloween party.  I made these pretzels with a Hug and candy corn melted on there.  It was amazing.  I got the idea from Pinterest of course.

 

 

I also made these witch fingers (chocolate covered pretzels).  The fingernail was made from an almond. I got this idea from Pinterest also.  I think they turned out great.

 

 

The only thing that I didn't like about how they turned out was the knuckles.  I tried to draw the knuckles on with a toothpick right after I got done dipping all of them, and it was too runny to set.  So I put them in the fridge for a while- and when I got them out, they were too hard and the toothpick wouldn't even make a mark in the chocolate.

 

This was my costume: Honey Boo Boo!

 

 

My mom refashioned my old prom dress to make it shorter and fluffier.  And I wrote Honey Boo Boo on my sash just in case people didn't know who I was.  I borrowed a pig from my friend's daughter to be Glitzy the pig, and my mom made Glitzy a tutu.  My grandmother rolled my hair in foam rollers and I had som crazy curly hair.  The crown was fabulous... but I lost it in the mud run.  I was too tired to deal with my hair after the party, so I decided to leave it that way for the run.  Here I am- Half Mud Runner, Half Honey Boo Boo!

 

 

This is me, Shannon, and Casey before the run:

 

 

And here we are after the run (with Kathy now):

 

 

The Mud Run was super fun.  I did not know that there was also mud at the beginning- I thought there was only the mud at the end.  Also there was a hay bale obstacle.  I did not do as well in the running as I had hoped.  I have a lot more training to do before the 10K in March!  At the end, the mud pit had a mud mountain that we had to climb.  The guys helping us climb the mountain also conveniently helped us slide face first down the mountain.  That is where I got the messiest.  And then my foot got stuck in the mud.  Like all the way to my knee stuck in the mud.  That was hilarious.  I was pulling my leg from under my thigh and one of my friends got a hold by my knee and it took us quite a while to pull me out.  I had a good time and I think I will take my sister next year.

 

The mud run was at 9:00 in the morning, and the Razorbacks were taking on Ole Miss on the complete opposite side of town at 11:21.  So I rushed home from the Mud Run and took a shower and then hurried to the game.  I made it there about 1/3 through the first quarter.  I was exhausted so the game was not as fun as usual. And then the Hogs lost at the last second.  It was sad.

 

And I forgot the sunscreen.  This is what happened:

 

Raccoon eyes.  Awesome. 

 

Does Honey Boo Boo have raccoon eyes?  Because I'm dressing up again on Wednesday for work... and this is what my face looks like.  Even with a ton of makeup on, you can still see the sunburn.  Oh well.  The life of having fair skin.  This is the second bad sunburn I have had in two weeks.  You would think I would learn my lesson...

The Color Run- Memphis style

A couple of weeks ago, I went to the Color Run in Memphis with my friends Shannon and Kathy.

 

Here we are waiting at the start line.  It wasn't really crowded at this point, but it filled up fast.  We were a little early- like 2 hours early. :)  Between myself and Shannon, we were not going to be late.  We had to get there early to pick up our race packets, and we severely overestimated the number of people who would also be getting their packets.

 

We took a picture right after we finished the race.  We finished in about 34ish minutes (give or take since we forgot to look at the clock when we finished until after we had a water break), so I was proud of us.  Not too shabby, especially since I was not where I wanted to be in my training.

 

After the race, there was a color festival.  That is where I definitely got the most colorful.  Here's an action shot-  I was trying to take a video but obviously that didn't happen.

 

 

This is what my face looked like when we got back to the hotel:

 

 

It took about 3 showers before I finally got all the color off of my skin.  My shoes still are a little colored, but just enough that they look dingy.  :/  Oh well. 

 

The water stations at the race were very interesting to me.  They had a hose connected to the fire hydrants, and then into these ice chests (I'm thinking a filter maybe?) and then into the dispenser.  It was neat.  The first cup I had was tasty- but then the second cup tasted like a cup full of chlorine.   Luckily by the end of the race, I think all the kinks had been worked out and it tasted fine when we really needed the water.

 

The Color Run is coming to Little Rock soon, and I haven't decided if I am going to do it again or not.  It was a super fun time in Memphis, but it also was very tiring.  I'm sure the one in Little Rock would not be as bad since I would not have to drive 2 hours there and 2 hours back, and also we wouldn't have to be rushed to get checked out of the hotel in time.  We got to the race 2 hours early and then stayed for a while afterward for the color festival.  So I haven't made up my mind yet, but I am glad that the Color Run is coming to Little Rock so all of my friends who couldn't make the trip to Memphis are able to participate!

September & Part of October

Football season started!  I love football.

My sister and I went to an Arkansas Traveler's baseball game. 

The Hogs played at War Memorial stadium.  It was a very embarrassing loss to ULM.  We will not talk about that.  Here's a picture of me and my grandmother.

 

Also during the game weekend, I was without power for 3 days.  I was mainly mad that I was going to have to throw out a lot of food.  I could deal without a hairdryer.  Although it would have been nice to have the air conditioner too.

 

My liver tests came back perfect two times in a row.  Hallelujah!

 

I discovered Candy Corn Oreos.  They are amazing.  And bad for my diet.

 

My family went to Kansas City for my sister's school break, and my brother and I met them there for the weekend.  On the way, I got to see my bff Lyndsey and her son.  It was good to catch up, and of course eat at my old college favorite restaurant.

 

 

We ate at Arthur Bryant's one meal- nothing there sounded good.  I sometimes can't even handle the thought of meat, and this was the worst day for that!  This is what I ended up with for dinner- it has carrots!  :)

 

 

My office had our annual picnic.  The theme was Mardi Gras.  One of the competitions was a "float" contest.  I was on the float team for my division, and since I work in the water division, we went for an aquarium theme.  Please keep in mind that we had to use a wagon as the base and as many recyclable or reused items as possible.

 

 

We were the proud winners.  Our prize was a pizza party and a cool trophy.

 

 

I went to a bachelorette party for this sweet girl.  And I almost got abducted walking back to my car, but that's a fun story for another day.

 

 

And then she got married.

 

 

How about the beginning of October too?!?  Ya'll I am finally getting caught up.

 

So my garage door broke.  Three times.  In one week.  Including on my birthday.  It was very frustrating, but hopefully I am done playing fix the garage door for a long time.  It has cost me about $500 in the past couple of months.

 

I ate cake and ice cream for breakfast on my birthday.

 

I turned 27.  (Hopefully I will remember to do a 30 before 30 update soon.) We ate more cake.

 

I went to Scott and Amanda's wedding at the Arkansas Arts Center.  I didn't take any pictures.

 

I got my case for my iPhone 5.  Too bad I still don't have the actual phone.  Hopefully it will get delivered soon.

 

 

I am looking for a case to hold the iPhone 5 while I run.  I don't want to take off this case.  Any ideas?  I haven't found anything yet.

 

I also got a new turqoiuse, yellow, and grey chevron comforter that same day.  I guess I'm liking the chevron these days.

 

Today I did the Color Run in Memphis.  It was an amazingly colorful and fun day.  I took a million pics though, so maybe I'll do a whole post later on the race!

August... two months later

Are you seeing the theme here?  Wait FOREVER before you post about what you did ages ago??

Anyway- August.

Facebook is telling me that my most visited place in August was the doctor's office.  How's that for exciting.  Ha!

Y'all- ok so I am reliving some scary stuff on my facebook right now.  There was this really creepy wasp that was stalking me.  I'm not really a fan of bugs/insects/whatever a wasp is.  And this crazy thing was parked right outside my bedroom door, trying to attack me whenever I went out.   I was doing laundry and so I have to leave my room a couple of times, but luckily he didn't get me.  I had to turn out the hall light and so I rigged up a hanger to reach the light switch to keep as much of my body inside my bedroom as possible.  Then the next morning when I left for work, he was still sitting there right outside my door waiting to get me.  I've never made it out the door so fast. Ha!  I stopped by the store that day and got some wasp spray, and he hasn't been seen again.  Now that I am armed with my wasp spray, I'll be ready if he should ever come back.  :)

I made some cheddar tomato soup, and dumped it all in my bed.  Smart, right?

A strip of grass in my dad's neighborhood caught on fire behind his house (and 5 others).  It was a crazy time.  No damage to anything but grass and a fence, thank goodness.  But it was definitely scary.  An electrical pole sparked and caused the fire.

I started watching Honey Boo Boo- and so did several others in my office.  We had some interesting conversations every Thursday morning...  (and I'm totally going to be Honey Boo Boo for Halloween.  Hopefully I can find my old prom dress!)

I chaperoned a group of kids to Wild River Country.  It was not nearly as chaotic as I thought it would be.  It was kind of a trip down memory lane since we would go there all the time with my daycare when I was a kid in the summers.

I got in my first real accident.  Luckily there was not much damage and everyone was fine.  Unfortunately it happened at the exit from the church parking lot right after church got out.  So practically everyone saw it...  I had to get a new front license plate, but other than that, not too bad.

I used a port-a-potty for the first time in my adult life.  I was running on the trail behind my office, and I decided that I couldn't make it back to my car, so I had to tough it out.  That was a terrible, nasty experience that I hope to not repeat for a very long time.  Even at Riverfest. 

I made a very quick trip to Fayetteville so my cousin to have a campus tour of the University of Arkansas, my alma mater.  It is always fun to be in Fayetteville.  It was also bid day for sororities, so we went up and I got to see some of my sorority sisters that I haven't seen in a while.

<>  First.  Finest.  Forever.  <>

Glittery, chevron, pink.  Perfect letters.  Ha!

We went to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Bentonville.  I'm not a big fan of paintings and such, but I like to look as sculptures. This one reminded me of pinnochio.

 

I finally got some Razorback running shorts that I was wanting.  And they were even 25% off, which is even better!

 

I started playing this year's fantasy football league at my office.  I have only won one game, so I think I am going to be the laughing stock.  :)  Oh well, it is all for fun right?  Hopefully I will win this week, because the girl I am playing has an even worse record than me.  :)

 

I officially lost 20 pounds.  You have no idea how happy I am about that.  Unfortunately, I really haven't lost much more than that now.  But every little bit counts.  I got my calories recalculated today, and although that stinks because I have to be even more cautious of what I eat, I know that it will help the weight keep coming off.  I would like to lose 15 more pounds if possible.  Already I can tell a big difference in how I feel and how my blood work has improved.  And once football season is over, it will be easier to lose I think!  I am not counting calories on the weekends because I refuse to not eat tailgating food or game day food.  And there is more to life than calorie counting...  I am over my calories today, and not just a little.  We went out to dinner to Pei Wei to celebrate my birthday, and I ate what I wanted.  Who cares?  :) 

 

Anyway, that was August.  September's coming up next!